Region’s workers ‘are the most stressed’

If you’re feeling the strain at work today in Lancashire, you’re not alone.

To coincide with National Stress Awareness Day, new research reveals how 63.6 per cent of employees in the North West feel overworked.

More than a third (35.1 per cent) admitted they have had to take time off due to stress.

The news comes from the UK’s largest job site, CV-Library, which conducted a survey among over 1,100 workers to explore stress levels in the workplace. Worryingly, it unveiled that workers in the North West are the most stressed in Britain – 24.1per cent of workers in the region don’t know how to deal with their stress and try to keep it to themselves.

Those that do confront the issue often manage it by adopting unhealthy lifestyle choices, say the research

Turning to alcohol and junk food which are both included in the four most common coping mechanisms across the region:

Other options include:

Speaking with friends and family (50.7 per cent)

Talking to co-workers (21.6 per cent)

Having a few drinks (12.9 per centy)

Comfort eating (6.8 per cent)

Furthermore, when resorting to taking time off work, 24.9 per cent of employees in the region are too scared to tell their boss that stress was the cause of absence.

When it comes to assessing the biggest causes of stress in North West workplaces, feeling overworked came on top.

An overwhelming 77.3 per cent of employees believe they don’t have enough time in the day to complete basic tasks. Other common stress-inducers included:

Unrealistic workloads (32.3 per cent)

Dealing with poor management (27.1 per cent)

Working with lazy colleagues (10.4 per cent)

Failing to achieve a good work/life balance (5.3 per cent)

Commenting on the findings, Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, says: “It’s worrying that such a large proportion of North West workers suffer from stress, which is being caused by strained situations in the workplace.”